Austin continued to favor the leg hit by the training round, but he ran as fast as he could while limping until he gained cover behind a cluster of trees.
“I like this job better than I thought,” Gray said. “I’ll spend my leave playing dead for you any day.”
Austin stepped in mud from a recent rain and grinned. “End of the line for you.” He growled as he hoisted Gray off his shoulder and let him fall—right into the mud.
The swampy water splashed. Gray yelled. And Austin laughed along with Tevez and Beau.
While Gray spit water and wiped his face, swearing, Austin grinned. “God, I love my job.”
Gray lunged for Austin. He jumped, avoiding Gray’s reach, then quick-stepped backward, laughing. “No joy, buddy.” Austin rested his hands on his knees and caught his breath. “No joy.”
With their training session complete, the guys gathered their gear and started for the house. Tevez, Beau, Lorenzo, Grayson, and Jovan were all men Austin had served with. They were his brothers. His family. They’d stuck by him when he’d decided to leave the unit to raise Bella. They’d risked their careers when he’d had to take matters into his own hands and take Bella out of the country. And they continued to help him develop the software and training regimens that made their active units stronger in the field and made Austin a millionaire several times over.
On the two-mile hike back to the house, Beau came up beside Austin. The youngest of the team, the kid was in his early twenties. “Is that smokin’ hot chick still at the house? Please tell me you hired her.”
“He didn’t hire her, you idiot,” Tevez answered for Austin. Tevez was closer to Austin’s age, in his early thirties, and still had a Hispanic accent even though he’d been in the US for twenty years. “He’d never get a damn thing done with that wandering around the house every day.” He cut a glance at Austin. “Am I right? Serious distraction.”
Austin pulled in a breath to answer, but Lorenzo spoke up first. “Wouldn’t mind a distraction like that one. Like every damn day.”
“Hooah,” all the men shouted in chorus.
Thoughts of Everly at the house were troubling enough. The idea of these woman-eaters hitting on her only made the tension worse. He let the guys mouth off until they crested the last hill toward the property. Bella’s joyful giggle among splashes of water touched his ears.
He turned and walked backward toward the house. “Okay, guys. I did hire her—”
Catcalls and shouts of approval peppered the air.
“But there is a strict hands-off policy in place,” he finished.
That news elicited moans of disappointment.
He was still turned away from the house when they came up on the pool deck. The moment all five men looked past him, Austin knew Everly was right where she should be, poolside with Bella. But it was the collective jaw-drop that told him Everly was also using the pool.
“Hands off,” Jovan said as Austin turned, “but we can still look, right?”
One of them whistled between his teeth, a low holy-Mary-mother-of-God whistle.
Everly was at the edge of the pool, down on one knee beside Bella, positioning his daughter’s arms overhead for a dive. And she was in a bikini. Not a string bikini. More like a sport bikini. But still a bikini. And the sight made Austin’s stomach drop, then float.
The suit was a fun, bright Aztec pattern, bordered in black. The top stretched across her breasts and dipped in the front, putting Everly’s supple cleavage on display. The back was a strip of black lattice between her shoulder blades. The bottoms covered her ass, less rather than more. And, damn, what an ass.
The overall effect showed off a lean, fit body that stole Austin’s breath. The woman had far more curves than her dress the day before had disclosed. And when she mirrored Bella, pushing to her feet beside his daughter, stretching her arms overhead and counting down, Austin’s brain flipped to standby.
“Three, two, one,” Everly said.
She and Bella tipped over the side and slipped into the water with hardly a ripple.
“Holy shit.” Jovan turned a look on Austin before the girls’ heads cleared the surface. “Tell me you’re tapping that, dude. If you’re going to stick to the hands-off policy, at least let us live vicariously.”
“Hooah,” the others echoed before they burst out laughing.
“Daddy, Daddy,” Bella called. “You see? See me dive?”
He moved to the pool ledge, crouching to smile down at Bella. “I sure did. It was amazing.”
As badly as he wanted to push to his feet, turn, and escape into the house, he couldn’t keep himself from casting a look at Everly, treading water behind his daughter. Her dark hair was slicked off her face, and her blue eyes were like lightning rods through his chest.
“Well done.” His simple words seemed to please her, and she turned an equally heart-melting smile on Austin.